Enriqueta Breceda of El Paso (center) holds a flag during the singing of national anthem during the rally at the Texas Capitol after the march through the streets of Austin.

Enriqueta Breceda of El Paso (center) holds a flag during the singing of national anthem during the rally at the Texas Capitol after the march through the streets of Austin.

Photo: Photos By Lisa Krantz / San Antonio Express-News

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Jose Luis Rosales (center) of El Paso chants with his children, Kate, 9, and Luis, 7, during the Capitol rally.

Jose Luis Rosales (center) of El Paso chants with his children, Kate, 9, and Luis, 7, during the Capitol rally.

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Juanita Reyna chants as she carries a sign and walks with the Immigration March to the Alamo on Friday, July 4, 2014.

Juanita Reyna chants as she carries a sign and walks with the Immigration March to the Alamo on Friday, July 4, 2014.

Photo: Lisa Krantz, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

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Luis Rosales, 7, from left, of El Paso, walks with his sister, Kate Rosales, 9, and their father, Jose Luis Rosales, on Congress Ave. towards the Texas State Capitol during the March for Humane Immigration Reform in Austin on Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. Carried in front of them is a piece of fence symbolizing the border fence with the photographs and names of six people killed by Border Patrol agents in the last seven years.

Luis Rosales, 7, from left, of El Paso, walks with his sister, Kate Rosales, 9, and their father, Jose Luis Rosales, on Congress Ave. towards the Texas State Capitol during the March for Humane Immigration

Marchers Cindy Hunter, from left, Latasha Eke, holding a photograph of U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas,and Fransha Brooks, all of Houston, take a break upon reaching the Texas State Capitol grounds for the rally during the March for Humane Immigration Reform in Austin on Friday, Feb. 22, 2013.

Marchers Cindy Hunter, from left, Latasha Eke, holding a photograph of U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas,and Fransha Brooks, all of Houston, take a break upon reaching the Texas State Capitol grounds for the rally

Siblings, from left, Ricardo Alvarez, 10, from left, Julisa Alvarez, 12, and Violeta Alvarez, 7, all of Houston, participate in the rally at the Texas State Capitol following the March for Humane Immigration Reform in Austin on Friday, Feb. 22, 2013.

Siblings, from left, Ricardo Alvarez, 10, from left, Julisa Alvarez, 12, and Violeta Alvarez, 7, all of Houston, participate in the rally at the Texas State Capitol following the March for Humane Immigration

Marchers including Mirna Aguilar, of Austin, center, chant as they approach the Texas State Capitol grounds from Congress Ave. during the March for Humane Immigration Reform in Austin on Friday, Feb. 22, 2013.

Marchers including Mirna Aguilar, of Austin, center, chant as they approach the Texas State Capitol grounds from Congress Ave. during the March for Humane Immigration Reform in Austin on Friday, Feb. 22, 2013.

Photo: Lisa Krantz, San Antonio Express-News

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Marchers call on lawmakers for “just” immigration reform

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AUSTIN —They came by the busload — leaving their jobs in El Paso construction sites, in the tony homes of San Antonio's suburbs and atop Dallas' skyscraping office towers.

They came dressed in T-shirts, tailored suits, and — in a style nod to both their patriotism and the mid-morning chill — U.S. flags draped over their shoulders.

They came armed with megaphones and signs clutched in tightly gripped hands, all to proclaim themselves or their family members undocumented but no longer afraid.

Several hundred immigrants, supporters and civil rights advocates marched through the streets of Austin on Friday, calling on lawmakers to quickly pass a “just and humane” immigration reform package.

Organizers billed the demonstration as the first large-scale demonstration of its kind since President Barack Obama declared the issue a top priority of his second term.

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In a crowd that spanned the divides of race, age and social class, they chanted in unison and sang the national anthem, while representatives from immigrant rights groups from across the state decried the harsh rhetoric coming from some reform opponents in Washington.

“This language — they're demonizing my parents and my family,” said Alicia Torres, 27, from San Antonio, who, despite graduating from a U.S. college with a nursing degree, remains undocumented more than a decade after she and her family immigrated illegally from Mexico.

“I'm the embodiment of why my parents came to this country, but they talk about us like we're not even people,” she said.

Hours earlier, buses hailing from as far away as New Mexico and the Rio Grande Valley unloaded their cargo in Republic Square Park, about a mile away. There, demonstrators amassed amid the mid-February fog, and Irma Cruz — still bleary-eyed from her 12-hour overnight ride from El Paso — paused to survey the crowd.

“It was a long trip, but worth it to be part of this debate,” she said.

Meanwhile, Violet Alvarez, 7, of Arlington, quickly grew bored waving a sign that read, “Born in the U.S.A., Please don't take my mommy and daddy away.” She dropped it in favor of a quick game of tag with her siblings.

As the group set off along Congress Avenue, some, like 30-year-old Lauren Nyc, marched on behalf of their own families. After an expensive and confusing four-year effort, her husband, a Mexican migrant, stands just months away from becoming a U.S. citizen.

“We're almost in a unique situation, though,” Nyc said. “We actually had the resources, the money and the education to figure out the process. So many other people don't.”

Throughout the day's rally, demonstrators expressed optimism that recent proposals like that put forth by the Obama administration last month stand a real chance of becoming law, despite false starts in the past.

A draft bill of the president's proposal — which calls for the creation of a pathway to citizenship for the nation's 11 million illegal immigrants — was leaked to USA Today last week and already has drawn the ire of conservative Republicans, including like Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz.

Both men have said they will oppose any plan that ends in citizenship for those who broke the law to enter the country, but maintain they are open to compromise on other points.

“Sen. Cornyn stands ready to tackle immigration reform that will secure the border and fix our broken system for those who wish to come here legally,” Cornyn spokesman Drew Brandewie said Friday.

But it was Cruz, himself the son of a Cuban immigrant, who drew the most venom from Friday's demonstrators.

Holding an oversized photo of the outspoken freshman senator, Zulema Perez led a cohort of marchers from the Capitol to Cruz's Austin office.